Before My Mother
by Lia Ex Machina
Summary: Sequel to "In the Gardens" and "In the Salle", but somehat different from the two. Elspeth and Selenay discuss fools, Bards, and life as a Herald. Happy (belated) Mothers' Day!


Author's Note: Call it a happy coincidence I got it up around Mothers' Day. Dedicated jointly to the Nabisco Company (for making Oreos) and etcetera-cat, beta-reader extraordinaire. Go read her stuff now- she's far better than I am.

Disclaimer: All, save Givyr and his songs, are the most wonderful Misty's.

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"Mother, it's necessary. He's misinforming the general populace."

"Bards have been doing that since there was a Valdemar. Charging him with fraud would break fourteen hundred years of Bardic immunity," sighed Selenay. "True, he's taking it to a new degree. I've heard that one about the Tayledras. 'And the flight of power sweeps her/Into the bushes wild/ She tumbles, head by knees/ like as to a rowdy child'? The man's a master of the maudlin." She shook her head as if unable to comprehend the awfulness.

"That one's not so bad. At least he consulted the Chronicles about magic on that, as he obviously didn't on the others." The former Heir waved her arms in the air, as if to drive the point home. "Don't you see my point? Those farmers and tradesmen in the countryside are hearing blatantly fake descriptions of illusion, coercion, and power sources. If a Herald doesn't show up and contradict them not long after they're heard, they'll believe _that_, rather than the truth."

"You're overreacting. A few awful songs do _not_ make sufficient cause to destroy Bardic and clap a Bard in the stocks for doing his job." 

"Unfortunately, as it would set a good example for the rest of them…" Elspeth ground her teeth.

"Don't you have any idea how expensive it would be to rebuild it once you were finished?" asked the Queen.

"Yes, I looked it up." Elspeth produced a rather unfortunate scrap of parchment and squinted at it. "It cost ten thousand to build, so I factored in all the furniture and instruments. Sixteen thousand. Mother, that's nothing compared to what we'll spend repairing Givyr's damage." She paused and sniffed the air, looking uncannily like a scent-hound. "Incidentally, why does it always smell like aniseed in here?"

"Be serious." The Queen was unsure whether she spoke to her daughter or herself.

"I am. Why does it? I don't think there's aniseed in cleaning oils."

"There isn't. I have no idea why it does, but it does; always has. It smelled like aniseed when I was crowned," she replied.

"It could be something _besides_ aniseed. You could be being slowly poisoned by the very air!" Elspeth glared at an impudent knot in the wall, which cowered in fear.

"Elspeth, paranoia is only good in moderation." Selenay stood and began pacing the room. "You're trying to change the topic. Firstly, you have been _strongly _overreacting to three bad songs. Bards are a paradox; we can't live with them, and we can't live without them. Secondly, your solution to the problem is utterly insane, not to mention infeasible. Razing Bardic would solve one problem and create thousands. Lastly, Givyr is not currently _in_ Bardic, so destroying it would accomplish absolutely nothing." Selenay gave her daughter what Elspeth had always thought of as the "Queen-of-Valdemar-and-don't-you-forget-it!" look.

"Well, then, where is he?" asked the Herald-Mage impatiently.

"We've no idea." Selenay glanced at her daughter. "If you try to go haring off in search of him, I'll have the guards bar all the gates. You may have abdicated, but you're still third in the succession."

"Bars aren't much use against me, Mother." Elspeth looked more than a bit smug.

"Don't get a swelled head. The last time that happened, it took Talia to cure it."

"Hulda helped with it." Elspeth watched the Queen for a moment, silent. "The Council will have a fit if you wear a hole in the floor and fall through."

"I'm worried, Elspeth. Worried about Bardic. Worried about the twins. Worried about your mages. Worried about the Eastern Empire." Selenay halted. "Worried about you."

The Herald-Mage sighed. "Your life's enough to worry anyone to bits, Mother. And they're not _my_ mages; they're the Kingdom's. I try to cope with being a Herald and being human and the differences between. That's the problem with Givyr- he only sees a Herald as a Herald, not as a human."

__

:He sees you as a human, too.: commented Gwena.

"Oh, I hear that he _does_ see you as a human, and that I'm likely to find he and Darkwind at knife-points someday." Selenay grinned. "That happened to me once."

"Havens, I _do not_ need this." Elspeth began massaging her temples. "Fool Bards writing songs about me, fool Bards falling in love with me, fool Trainees refusing to shield properly…"

"You never did suffer fools gladly, and we do seem to have to deal with a surfeit of them." The Queen, with all the force of a lifetime of diplomacy behind it, managed _not_ to mention certain Councilors.

"Unfortunately. How did you deal with your fool?"

"Slept with Caryo for a week. I wasn't Queen at the time, just Heir Apparent. By the way, I chanced to meet Givyr a moon or two ago." 

Her daughter started. "You did? Did he ask after me?"

"Yes. He had to go through several layers of bureaucracy to see me. Looked rather starry-eyed, and wanted Rolan's records of your bit in k'Sheyna. I told him to ask Talia."

"She's tried more than both of us. I don't envy her," replied Elspeth.

"Nor I. The schools will teach history of this in twenty years, and they'll memorize my name and yours, but never hear a word of Talia. In a century, the only thing left of us for the masses will be Givyr's songs, and Myste's Chronicles for your great-grandchildren."

"Those masses need the right information, and Givyr is _not_ gifting them that," said Elspeth, regressing to her first complaint. "We needn't clap him in the stocks, but a spell in gaol should discourage him."

"Brilliant, Elspeth, leave him to pine after you and pen love songs."

"If I escort him there, he won't do that." She paused, then groaned. "No, he will, but I'll be a victim of pressure from you, the Council, and Darkwind, who I'll hate, and be secretly hiding my feelings for him."

"On the spot. You'd have an interesting time enacting that with Talia about." Selenay stifled a smile.

"It would be hilarious should the situation somehow manage to arise. Just as you corner me in a dark hallway with Gwena reared behind you, she shows up half-asleep and ruins the scene." She giggled at the idea. "It's too bad all Bards seem to be hopeless romantics, or I'd try and get someone to write that."

"And that one more hopeless than the others," added Selenay.

"Utterly so. I should watch my back; he might turn up and try to make me see the error of my ways or something equally maudlin. It makes you wonder why all the starry-eyed Chosen we get are so enthusiastic. Then again, I didn't much care about future hazards at fourteen," said Elspeth.

"You were less than a typical case," replied her mother.

"Typical has never been a word to describe me," said the first Herald-Mage in six centuries.

"_Chased_ might be in a few days," quipped the Queen.

"Not if I do what I plan to." She glanced at Selenay and noticed her concerned look. "Don't worry, Mother, I won't lay a hand on the fool." Elspeth exited with a demonic grin, leaving her mother to wonder just what she had gotten herself into.

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Author's Note: There's a _LHM_ paraphrase in there- specifically, from Savil in MPawn. All who spot it get cookies. *holds out cookie* Here reader-reader-reader, you know you want to…but you have to review to get it…

Signing off,

Lia


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